Today, Monday, March 23, representatives of 60 partners from 43 countries will meet to start the first global citizen consultation project ever, the World Wide Views on Global Warming (WWViews). This project gives citizens the opportunity to influence the negotiations of the next UN climate conference in December at Copenhagen and thereby the future of global climate policy. The KIT Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS) is the German partner of WWViews.
Today, delegates of most national partners will meet for three days at Copenhagen in order to discuss democracy, citizen consultation, and climate change. In their presence, the WWViews project will be started officially today at the Danish parliament in Copenhagen. Sten Gade, member of parliament and chairman of the Commission on Environment of the Danish parliament, will welcome the representatives of the partner organizations, the members of parliament, the ambassadors of the partner countries in Denmark as well as national and international journalists.
The national partners, among them KIT scientists, will attend the project launch seminar from March 23 to 25 in Copenhagen. There, they will have a foretaste of what citizens will experience at the WWViews conferences. They will go through some of the difficulties that may arise when 43 nations have to create a common ground across continents, cultures, and development, as the delegates at the world climate conference will experience.
WWViews is initiated and organized by The Danish Board of Technology and The Danish Cultural Institute (DCI). Central to the project are the citizen consultations on September 26, 2009, in 43 countries on all continents. Citizens will deliberate and vote on decisive questions negotiated at the 15th world climate conference. The organizers are convinced of the fact that citizens are affected directly by global warming and future climate policy, which is why they should be consulted before political decision-makers negotiate at the world climate conference.
Among others World Wide Views on Global Warming is supported by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Danish Minister of Climate and Energy, Connie Hedegaard, host of the world climate conference and ambassador for WWViews. As one of 43 national partners, the KIT Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS) represents Germany.
The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is the merger of the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, member of the Helmholtz Association, and the Universität Karlsruhe. This merger will give rise to an institution of internationally excellent research and teaching in natural and engineering sciences. In total, the KIT has 8000 employees and an annual budget of 700 million Euros. The KIT focuses on the knowledge triangle of research – teaching – innovation.
The Karlsruhe institution is a leading European energy research center and plays a visible role in nanosciences worldwide. KIT sets new standards in teaching and promotion of young scientists and attracts top scientists from all over the world. Moreover, KIT is a leading innovation partner of industry.